Samsung Galaxy S4 Press Photo and Codename Hit The Web

The Italians at TuttoAndroid got their hands on what it seems to be an official press photo of the highly-anticipated Samsung Galaxy S4. The same source has some other details about the next-gen Samsung flagship smartphone, as it seems that it will hit the stores sometime mid-April, less than a year away from the market debut of the Samsung Galaxy S3.

The same Italian publication claims that the Samsung Galaxy S4 is codenamed Altius, but we'd advise you to take the information with a pinch of salt, as the picture you are looking at is available on Picasa since December 27th, 2012.

What stroke me as unusual is the battery percentage displayed in front of the battery icon, as none of the official renderings of the South Korea-based phone maker looked like this. As well, the user interface looks too much like the Nature UX from the Galaxy S3, and I am pretty sure that Samsung will make a couple of changes, here and there, before a big launch like this.

I remind you that the rumors that made the headlines earlier this week were pointing towards a March release date for Samsung Galaxy S3, but there's no sign of an official confirmation, yet.

The rumor mill claims that the Samsung Galaxy S4 will come with a 2,600 mAh battery, will be available in two body colours, white and black, and that it will pack a full HD 4.99-inch display. As about the processor, it seems that it will be powered by the octo-core Exynos 5 Octa chipset unveiled at CES 2013, plus 2 GB of RAM. The camera will also be upgraded, from 8 megapixels to 13 megapixels.

To be honest, the smartphone pictured above is not looking bad at all, having sharper lines compared to the Galaxy S3.

Do you think that this is the real Samsung Galaxy S4, or just a rendered picture faked by a guy with good photoshop skills? Please let us know in the comments section.